Dispensing container for sheet wrapping material



March 3, 1959 R. l. KALLMAN ET AL 2,875,891

DISPENSING CONTAINER FOR SHEET WRAPPING MATERIAL Filed April 19, 1956 INVENTORS. Kai/mar) Ro'ber/ Thomas M. Sfe/nbac Roberf E S/om/ng 1 7 TTORNEYS United States Patent DISPENSING CONTAINER FOR SHEET WRAPPING MATERIAL Robert I. Kallman, Geneva, and Thomas M. Steinbach, Park Ridge, 111., and Robert F. Stoming, Hammond, Ind., assignors to The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application April 19, 1956, Serial o. 579,266

Claims. (Cl. 206-58) This invention relates to an improveddispensing container or carton for sheet material, particularly plastic position a portion of the sheet or film material stored. therein in order to facilitate withdrawing a desired length for severance from the roll.

The conventional dispenser cartons in which relatively small rolls of waxed paper, plastic film, metal foil and other commonly employedsheet wrapping materials are packaged for domestic and analogous uses are not ordinarily adapted to maintain a portion of the sheet material exposed for easy access in order to facilitate withdrawing a desired length for severance from the roll. This may provide particular inconvenience and annoyance for the user, especially if the sheet material has a pronounced tendency to recoil or feed back into the wound supply roll, as-frequently may occur with plastic film wrapping materials.

It would be advantageous to provide an improved dispensing container for rolls of sheet wrapping material, particularly plastic film, which, simply and expeditiously, would be adapted to maintain the loose or unwinding portion of the sheet or film material stored therein in accessible disposition. This result and other advantages and benefits may be realized in accordance with the present invention which comprises a dispensing container for packaging a wound supply roll of sheet wrapping material, said container having an outlet for said sheet wrap: ping material disposed longitudinally along the bottom of an open, V-shaped, outwardly funnelled trough provided in said container, said trough extending in the direction of the roll width-accommodating length of said container.

Advantageously, a sheet cutting means may be provided at or near one of the upper edges of said trough on said container. Further features of the invention will hereinafter be apparent.

Further features and advantages of the invention will be apparent in the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein Figure 1 is a plan view of a container according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional side view of the container, taken along the line 22 in Figure l; and

Figure 3 is a side-view in cross-section of a modified embodiment of a container in accordance with the invention.

There is shown in plan view in Figure 1 of the accompanying drawing a dispensing container 4 in accordance with the present invention. The upper or dispensing side of the container is comprised of an open, V-shaped, outwardly funnelled trough, indicated generally by the reference numeral 5, which extends the length of the container parallel with a supply roll (not shown in Figure 1) of sheet wrapping material 9 contained therein. An outlet 7 for the sheet material 9 is provided by an opening between the spaced bottom edges of the sloping may be unsatisfactorily deep.

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sides 6 which form the trough 5. One of the bottom edges of the sides 6 may, if desired, be formed to overlap the bottom edge of the other side in the trough. A cutting strip 10 may advantageously be provided at or along the upper edge of one of the sides of the trough in order to permit severing withdrawn lengths of the sheet material on the container. The cutting strip may be of any desired material and it may have a serrated or straight cutting edge, as may be preferred.

It is usually preferable for the container 4 to be in the illustrated form of a rectangular, roll-accommodating box made of cardboard, paperboard, fiberboard or like material of construction or, when greater permanence is desired, it may be fabricated of metal or plastic. In such cases, as

shown, one of the sides of the container is made up of the trough arrangement although, in certain instances, only a portion of the width of one of the sides may be comprised of the dispensing trough arrangement. As depicted in the cross-sectional view of the container 4 in Figure 2, taken along the line 22 in Figure 1, both sides of the trough 5 may be sloping. Or, if preferred, and as shown in cross-section in Figure 3, only one of the sides of the trough may slope from the sides of the container, with the other being the upright extension of the container side or a parallel upright section. A supply roll 8 of the sheet material 9, wound on a suitablecore, is shown in the container 4 in both of the Figures 2 and 3. As illustrated, the supply roll 8 may unwind in either direction in the container and the cutting strip 10, when it is provided, may either be inside or outside of the trough 5.

There is no precise criticality involved in the included angle which is described by the trough 5. Generally, particularly with troughs of the type illustratedin Figure 2 of the drawing that are formed of a pair of sloping sides, an angle between about 45 and 160 will be found suitable. Of course, as is apparent from Figure 3, when the trough is formed of sides in which only one side is sloping relative to the sides of the container, the greatest included angle which is described by the trough will unavoidably be less than C. Likewise, the depth of the trough may be varied over a relatively wide range.

Ordinarily, it is beneficial for it to be at least about A inch deep to insure that a suitably engageable length of the sheet material will remain exposed in accessible disposition in the trough. On the other hand, troughs which are deeper than an average index-finger length Advantageously, the sides of the trough are provided in a collapsible or resiliently yieldable manner. This permits inserting a wound roll of the sheet material through the trough in order to load the container when it is desirable to package the wound rolls in such a manner. It also facilitates threading the loose or free end of the sheet material 9 from the Wound roll 8 in the roll holding section of the container through the outlet 7. This may be readily accomplished, either in the case of a fresh package or whenever the loose end of the sheet material has been lost, by removing the supply roll from the container, as through an openable end flap therein, unwinding the loose end of the sheet material from the roll, and loading the roll through the trough into the roll holding portion of the container while retaining the unwound end exposed in the trough.

Collapsible or resiliently yieldable trough sides may be provided in various ways. Conveniently, as is illustrated in Figures 2 and 3, they may be formed by employing a bendable or foldable accordion-pleated supporting strip for maintaining the side of the trough in a sloping position in the container. Such a support yields'when the side of the trough is pressed in and returns the side of the trough to a desired sloping position when the pressure is released. It is frequently desirable for the foldable supporting strip to be fixed firmly, by an adhesive or the like, to the side of the container.

As is apparent, the trough provides a simple and efficient means in the'dispensing containers of the present invention for maintaining a withdrawn portion of the sheet material in accessible disposition after a desired withdrawn length has been severed from the supply package. Further, although the accessible portion is exposed from i the supply roll, it is maintained in a protected location in the trough in the container. In addition, the trough secures an efiicient cutting angle for the sheet material on the associated cutting means that may be provided on the container to facilitate severing withdrawn lengths from the package.

Dispensing containers in accordance with the invention may be employed with particular advantage for plastic wrapping films such as those which are comprised of copolymers of vinylidene chloride and vinyl chloride which may frequently be generically characterized as being sarans and which enjoy widespread popularity and have great favor as a wrapping material for domestic and other uses.

Since certain changes in the practice of this invention may be made without substantially departing from its spirit or scope, it is to be understood that all the foregoing be interpreted as being merely illustrative and in no sense or manner limiting or restrictive of the invention excepting as it is particularly set forth and defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed isi 1. A dispensing container for packaging a wound supply roll of sheet wrapping material, said container having an outlet for said sheet wrapping material disposed longitudinally along the bottom of an open, V-shaped, outwardly funnelled trough provided in said container,

said trough comprising an entire side of said container and 'eiite'n'ding'in the direction of the 'rollwidth accotnmodating length of said container, said trough forming an included angle between about and 16 and having resiliently yieldable sides so as to permit the loading of said container by insertion of a wound roll of the sheet material through said trough.

2. In'a'container of claim 1, said trough being formed of a pair of sloping sides.

3. The container of claim 1 and including a sheet cutting means at one of the upper edges of said trough.

4. The container of claim 1 in combination with a wound supply roll of plastic wrapping film packaged therein.

5. A dispensing container for packaging a wound supply roll of sheet wrapping material, said container having an outlet for said sheet wrapping material disposing longitudinally along the bottom of an open, V-shaped,

outwardly funneled trough comprising an entire side of said container and provided in said container, said trough being formed of sides in which only one side is sloping relative to the sides of the container, said trough extending in the direction of the roll width-accommodating length of-said container, said trough forming an included angle between about 45 and said sloped side of 'said trough being resiliently yieldable so as to permit the loading of said container by insertion of a wound roll of the sheet material through said trough.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,816,384 Marcalus July 28, 1931 2,114,628 Carruthers Apr. 19, 1938 2,463,375 Gluck Mar. 1, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 134,405 Sweden Jan. 29, 1952 

